


A 90's Kind Of Love

by obviouslyelementary



Series: Reddie Stories [6]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, College, Drugs, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Period-Typical Homophobia, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-24 17:38:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20709947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obviouslyelementary/pseuds/obviouslyelementary
Summary: College. A place to make friends, try out new things, find out who you really are, meeting the love of your life, study your ass off for finals. A place to go crazy, or to finally become sane.Somehow, they never met in Derry. But destiny guides Eddie and Richie to the same college, where they find out that not everything is what it seems.College can be your best dream or your worst nightmare.





	1. Introduction

College.

During all his life, Richard had heard that when he got to college, his life would take a turn for the better. That in college was where people found their true friends, where people met the love of their lives, that everyone was free to be whoever they wanted to be, with no judgments or bad looks. That college was heaven for all the kids that had been put through shit during their childhood years.

Honestly, half of him hoped all of that bullshit was true, while the other half of him was one hundred percent sure that was just talk. He bet that all the people that once hated him would keep hating him, that the new people he would meet over in college would be just a bunch of assholes just like the kids at school were, and that he would still be a lonely loser.

The only good thing about it was that he was getting the hell out of Derry. That fucking town, with nothing but stupid people and their stupid beliefs would be far away from his ass, and he couldn't be happier for it. He wouldn't have to face those assholes that annoyed the shit out of him, he wouldn't have to face his parents ever again, and whenever his sister remembered he existed, she could come over and complain about her life without wanting to avoid their parents like the plague.

At least for that college would be fucking perfect.

Richie opened the front door, walking inside his house and looking around. He had just quit his job at the arcade, thank fuck, and now he was going to get his bags ready for the trip tomorrow. A small part of him expected, or better yet, hoped, that his parents would be home for once. That they would have baked a cake, that his mother would be crying and his father would tap him in the back and congratulate him for his achievements of getting in the university he chose. A tiny, insignificant part of him wished that the house would smell like his favorite dish, that there would be 'Goodbye Richie' banners all over the place, and that he would feel like shit for hating his parents for his whole life, because they actually cared and actually loved him.

However, he arrived to an empty, silent house, and a note that said 'there's food in the fridge' from his mom. They were off again, probably for good this time. He hadn't seen them for two weeks, and he wasn't really expecting to see them ever again.

Despite all the hatred in his heart, he couldn't help but feel the tears burning in the back of his eyes at that scene. He knew they didn't give a shit about him. They didn't give a shit about his sister either. They never had and they never would. So be it. Richie wiped the tears off his eyes before they fell and rushed to his room. It was time to pack, because his life was about to begin, and he didn't have time to waste.

He was going to make his life as far away from Derry as possible, and he would be damned if his parents would stop him from enjoying it.

He packed everything he had. All his sheets, all his towels, all his clothes, all his comics, all his CDs, everything he could and couldn't carry, and even more stuff. He grabbed his parent's luggage and stuffed even more stuff inside, like his childhood toys, the pictures he would like to keep, a coat from his dad and a perfume from his mom, mostly to settle his homesickness down, because he knew it would come, and some other stuff he stole from them because he found useful, like the microwave and a blender. He wouldn't let those go to waste. When it was all done, he laid down on his work clothes and ended up falling asleep on his bed, until the alarm played in the next morning, ordering him to get up and go to the train station.

And that he did.

It was hard, to take four full bags plus a backpack on his own, but he managed it somehow. He got into the train with some help from some cool strangers and settled down on his seat, sighing to himself. There was an empty spot in front of him that he hoped would remain like that during the ten hour trip, but he couldn't be sure, so he surrounded himself with his bags and left a tiny opening for whoever would like to sit down.

He put his earphones over his ears and turned on his Walkman, closing his eyes and allowing the songs to blast through his skull, making him forget about the scary feeling in his belly and the sadness that was already overwhelming him. He sighed, quietly, and hugged his backpack, allowing himself to feel for a bit before the songs distracted him enough to make him calm.

Before he could ever think of anything, he was falling asleep, head leaning back on the seat.

But he wasn't going to sleep for too long.

\--------------------------------

"Eddie, sweetheart, did you get your inhaler? What about your medication? Did you get your Advil? What about your anxiety pills? Eddie are you sure you got everything? Eddie bear you're going to forget your new set of anti-allergic towels!"

Edward let out a soft sigh, rubbing his face. Luckily, he was in the bathroom, ready to shower, while his mother freaked out by the door inside his room. He looked at himself in the mirror, wondering when those wrinkles had appeared in his face. He was eighteen and he looked almost forty with as much stress as he went through as a kid.

It was college time. Finally. Fucking finally. After so many years of being considered a loser, after so many years of his mother constantly after him, telling him what to do and what not to do, after years having to obey all of her rules, he couldn't wait to go far, far away from her, have his own place, make up his own rules, make sure to only call her when he wanted, and grow as the fucking adult he was becoming.

"Eddie! Don't forget the new sweaters I bought you!"

He groaned and rubbed his face. For fuck's sake.

He pulled his towel away from his waist and placed it on the sink, turning the water on to see if he could numb out his mother's voices from his head. He climbed inside the bathtub and closed the curtains, letting the water soak him from head to toe, and sighed in contentment at the relaxing feeling of the warm water on his skin. His mother's voice now was nothing more than an annoying background noise, while his worries were washed away together with the dirt on his skin.

He was finally getting the fuck away from his old life, to start a new one far away from his mother, and especially far away from Derry. Thank fuck.

Eddie washed his hair, making sure to scrub the scalp very well to get rid of any bacteria, and then washed again, focusing mostly on the strands. He rinsed it off, adding some conditioner to make it soft and smooth, and then moved on to his body, washing everything well. When he was done, he rinsed it all off and climbed out, drying himself up with his towel and sighing to himself contently. He checked himself in the mirror for any weird spots, any pimples or anything out of the usual, before nodding and walking out of the bathroom. His mother had already left his room, thank god, so he closed the door and moved on to change himself, putting on some comfy clothes to stay at home and organizing his bags for the tenth time that day.

It seemed like he hadn't forgotten anything.

He closed them all up, locked them up with his lockers and walked downstairs to watch the wheel of fortune with his mother. She was already sitting down, eating some chips, while he grabbed some juice and sat next to her, leaning back against the chair and sipping on his drink slowly.

His eyes were focused on the TV, but all he could think about was college. About having his own TV and watching his own shows. About not having a curfew, about not having to sleep at precisely ten o'clock, about being able to eat some chips every now and then. It was the dream.

The show ended right on time, and the two of them went to the kitchen to grab something to eat. They ate, mostly in silence, while his mother tried not to cry at every fork of food she ate because 'her little boy was out for college'. Eddie tried to calm her down, held her hand and caressed it, but inside he was rolling his eyes and asking for god's sake for that day to end.

And end it did.

Morning came earlier than he could expect, and his mom took him all the way to the train station. Ten hour trip into the college of his dreams. She kissed his face all over, hugged him at least eight times, before the train arrived and he climbed inside with his bags. She waved at him, sobbed, and blew her nose on her handkerchief a few times. He waved at her and smiled sadly, all the time until the train doors closed.

Fuck. He was fucking free.

"Fuck yeah!"

He pressed his lips together, looking around at the people who were now staring at him. He blushed and muttered a 'sorry' before he walked out of that wagon, looking for somewhere else to sit. Sadly though, most of the other wagons were full, with no places to sit. The train started to move and he still hadn’t found anywhere to put his butt on, when a kind lady placed her hand on his arm.

"Sweetheart, I believe there is an empty spot right on front" she said, pointing to the other side of the wagon, and Eddie smiled at her.

"Thank you" he said, before heading towards the spot she had pointed to. He arrived, and instead of seeing an 'empty spot', he saw a bunch of bags spread everywhere, and a god damned guy snoring his ass off in front of said 'empty spot'. Eddie let out a deep sigh, putting his bags down, and leaned over, shaking the guy with little to no patience. He wanted to sit.

The boy opened his eyes, a bit surprised, and blinked up at Eddie. He had earphones on, so Eddie reached out and pulled them off his head.

"Excuse me kind sir, can I please sit my ass on the spot in front of you?"

That was as sweet as Eddie could be at that moment.

The boy seemed to blush a little before he organized himself on his seat, pulling his bags closer to himself.

"yeah yeah sure sorry" he muttered, clearly still sleepy, but he eventually got enough of his bags away for Eddie to squeeze through and sit down, sighing in relief as he finally got his ass in a comfortable place. He placed his backpack to his side, organized his bags beneath his seat and looked up again, to see the guy hugging his bag tight, eyes wide beneath his glasses. Eddie raised his eyebrow, confused at his lack of reaction.

"Um... do I have anything on my face or..." he asked, annoyed, and the guy shook his head, somehow blushing even further. He coughed and rubbed the sleep off his eyes before he raised his hand.

"No, sorry, I'm Richard" he said, and Eddie looked at his hand, disgusted. He sighed, he would be sharing a spot with that guy for ten hours. He better be polite. He raised his hand too, and shook Richard's hand.

"Hello Richard. I'm Edward."

"You can call me Richie" he said, shaking his hand back and then pulling away. Eddie nodded, still confused because of the guy's awkwardness.

"And you can call me Eddie, if you want."

The train made a loud noise, to indicate that they were catching up speed, and Eddie leaned back on the seat, watching as Richie looked out of the window and sighed.

Those would be some long ten hours.


	2. Train Stop

Richie wasn't really expecting anyone to sit with him. And when he was woken up, he was sleepy and confused because he hadn't even slept through a full song yet when someone was shaking him and staring at him.

And it didn't help that that someone was the cutest boy he had ever seen in his life, ever. He had huge brown eyes, a small frown that showed how actually pissed he was with Richie's excessive need for space, his hands were warm over his shoulder, and he smelled like fancy perfume and green apple shampoo and something else that was so fucking intoxicating.

"Excuse me my kind sir, can I sit my ass down on the spot in front of you?" he said, his voice in the verge between annoyed and certain, and Richie swallowed thickly because the first thoughts that came to his mind were not pure ones.

Even his voice was cute.

"Yeah yeah sure sorry" he mumbled, pulling his bags clumsily towards himself and allowing the boy to find some spot to sit down. And sit down he did, while Richie held tight onto his bag, out of pure instinct. He never knew how to handle himself close to a cute boy.

Damn him and his queerness.

"Is there something in my face or..." the boy said, and Richie felt the heat crawling up his face from his chest. Fuck he was staring. He was staring at the boy's cute nose and pink lips and sweet freckles that he wanted to touch very badly.

"No, sorry, I'm Richard" he spilled out, raising his hand, and the boy gave him a look that pretty much showed he didn't like human contact all that much. In any case, he raised his hand and shook Richie's hand.

"Hello Richard. I'm Edward."

Edward.

Edward, the kid with soft hands and warm eyes and that smelled like perfume.

Yes, he liked Edward.

He might like Edward a bit too much for a stranger he had just met.

They exchanged nicknames, and didn't talk anymore, Richie too worried about not looking at Edward to actually begin a conversation. And Edward, or better yet, Eddie, didn't seem in the mood for talking anyway. Richie could feel his eyes on him for a little longer before he started to look through his backpack. Richie stole a few glances here and there, putting his earphones back on and listening to his music. Eddie eventually removed a thick book from inside his bag and opened it in the middle, leaning back against the seat and beginning to read.

Okay, now they weren't going to talk again.

Good.

Richie could deal with that.

He closed his eyes and let the music blast through his ears again, trying not to think about the boy in front of him. He had just met him, he didn't understand what called Richie's attention like that.

(Actually he totally did, because crushing in boys was the easiest thing ever for Richie, and because of it he had gotten in a lot of trouble before. But still)

Despite that, it was almost impossible to ignore the boy in front of him, because the sits weren't that far apart and every now and then their knees brushed together and it was like fucking fire to Richie. He needed to calm down. Nothing good was going to come out of that.

Eddie was just a guy. A guy Richie had just met. Yes he was cute, probably around his age, but they were just train strangers who would never ever see each other again, that would never talk again, and that only had as many hours as they would stay inside together. So even if Richie got a crush, it would be over after ten hours max, in case the kid didn't get out before him. Then he would be free to find new crushes in college where everyone would be open for it and he would be able to be himself.

Or so he hoped, although he doubted it.

He moved his eyes out of the window to Eddie again when he put the book to the side and started to look for something inside his bag. He complained about something that Richie couldn't listen, because of his earphones, before his movements became a bit erratic and he started to move his bag around a bit frantically. Richie pulled his earphones off and the boy kept mumbling about something, before the bag fell from his hands, making him curse and all its contents fall to the ground.

"Shit!"

"Let me help"

Eddie looked up at him and Richie gave him a chill smile, seeing how nervous the boy was. He leaned over and started to gather what he could find. Most of the stuff was pill boxes and bottles, like, a lot. He just grabbed them and handed to Eddie without saying anything but fuck, there were a lot of bottles and pills.

"My inhaler!" Eddie gasped suddenly and Richie looked over, finding the little blue tube underneath his seat. He reached out and grabbed it, handing it to Eddie and watching as he shook it and sucked on the air that came out. He immediately seemed to relax, and Richie frowned, being pretty sure that was not how asthma worked. "Thanks..."

"Welcome" Richie said, grabbing the last two bottles and handing him the medicine. "How many sicknesses do you have?"

Well, that was rude. Eddie looked at him with wide eyes and Richie pressed his lips together. Ruder than he thought. But well he had already asked.

"I... um... these are to prevent sicknesses, I don't have anything confirmed. But my mom is sure I have something" he said, nervously, and closed his bag, looking bothered. Richie frowned and leaned back on the seat.

"Um... sure?" he asked, because he had never heard of that before. "So like... these make you avoid being sick? Sounds cool."

"It's not."

The boy, Eddie, seemed extremely ashamed Richie had seen his pills. Richie didn't mind, especially because somehow it made the boy in front of him ten times cuter. But that was Richie's queerness talking.

"So" Richie tried, wanting to break the ice, start a conversation "where are you off to?"

"... College" Eddie said, after a long time in silence. "What about you?"

"College too" Richie smiled. "Which one?"

"... I don't... feel like I should tell you" Eddie said, clearly hesitant, and Richie nodded.

"You're right. Safety first" he agreed, just because he didn't want to get on Eddie's bad side. "Sorry. Well I'm going to study analytics, since I don't know any place that teaches how to do your own Stand Up comedy shows" he chuckled, crossing his legs over the seat, and staring at Eddie. Fuck, he really was cute. Eddie looked at him surprised and clearly amused, tilting his head.

"You are going to study analytics even though you want to be a comedian?" he asked, smirking at him. "Shouldn't you study theater or acting or something?"

"Nah, I need something that will give me some food and a place to sleep, at least before I can become rich and famous" he answered, shrugging. "What about you? What are you majoring on?"

"Analytics as well" Eddie responded. "I want to be a risk manager. I have dealt with risks my whole life, it's almost a talent by this point."

"I didn't even know risk manager was a job" Richie snorted. "So what do you do?"

"Well I would help companies get into new businesses or make difficult decisions, telling them all the risks of them taking action or not" Eddie shrugged. "Mostly I will be a lone worker for big companies, or so I hope."

"Sounds like a good market" Richie said, hugging his legs. He couldn't stop moving when he was feeling nervous or excited. Now, he was both. "And you are from?"

"Derry"

"So am I!"

Eddie laughed and Richie felt his heart skipping a beat. He had the cutest laugh Richie had ever heard. He wanted to make Eddie laugh all day every day.

"Well, I never heard of you Richie Tozier. And that's difficult because Derry is the size of a peanut" Eddie said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the seat, clearly more relaxed now. "But here we are. And we managed to sit right next to each other. Two Derry boys, trying their lives somewhere else."

"Yes..." Richie agreed, turning stupid for a second before he blushed and chuckled. "Well I mean what life would we have if we stayed in shitty ass Derry? I think you and I made the right decision, getting the fuck away from that shithole."

"I couldn't agree more" Eddie sighed, contently. "Away from my mother, away from that shitty town, free to live life my own way, on my own terms, with my own rules. Thank fuck."

"I would drink to that" Richie chuckled, relaxing a bit and playing his hands on his legs as he crossed them again. "I'm so excited to have my own place, you know? To do my own stuff. I'm already looking for some job in the region, since my parents can't cover for me. And I have some savings but you know, it's good to start on the right foot."

"Yes yes. I'll stir away from jobs for a while, at least through my first semester. My mom assured she can cover for me" Eddie said, rolling his eyes. "But I want to get a job soon. Lucky for me I already have somewhere to stay. I'm going to stay at this inn for new students... hopefully I can make some friends."

"I bet you will, Eddie" Richie said, smiling at him. "You're easy to talk to."

"Thanks" he smiled at Richie, and he felt his heart stuttering in his chest. "You'll get friends too."

"I hope so" Richie mumbled, although honestly he wished Eddie and he would go to the same college and be friends. He already liked him.

The conversation continued for a while, before Eddie returned to his book and Richie started to listen to his music again. They got distracted by the served food and talked a bit more, and somehow the hours went flying.

A little over nine and a half hours of travel, a female voice was heard throughout the train, telling the passengers to get ready for the next stop in a few minutes. The next stop was Richie's, and he looked up from his Walkman, smiling at Eddie.

_"That's my stop."_

They looked at each other surprised at their timing, both saying it at the same time, and Richie couldn't help but feel his stomach bubbling with joy. Yes. Yes! Eddie chuckled to himself, grabbing his bag and placing it over his shoulder.

"Well, I guess we will be seeing each other for a while still" he said, and Richie grinned from ear to ear.

"Yes, apparently so."

He couldn't be happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay im already in love

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me during test week and I don't care. I hope you guys liked it. Comments and kudos are always appreciated.


End file.
